Beverage cup holder assemblies are common in today's vehicles. Many differing types of such beverage cup holders exist and they can be mounted in various positions within the vehicle. These cup holders are typically moveable between a stowed or concealed position and an extended or use position.
The manner in which cup holders are stored and moveable are quite varied. U.S. Pat. No. 5,171,061 to Marcusen discloses a cup holder slidable from a stowed concealed position to an extended use position. As the cup holder is extended to the use position, cup holder arms rotate outwardly to provide a container receptacle. Also, a T-shaped bail pivots downwardly to support the bottom the beverage container. U.S. Pat. No. 4,981,277 to Elwell discloses a similar type cup holder.
Another type of retractable beverage container is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,783,037 to Flowerday. Yet another type of cup holder is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,759,584 to Dykstra et al.
All of the aforementioned patents show a cup holder assembly of the type that is slidably mountable and can be extended from a stowed position to a use position. A different type of cup holder is the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,072,989 and 5,007,610. In this type of cup holder assembly, the cup holder is pivotally mounted within the armrest of a vehicle.
All of the aforementioned types of devices require a manual movement to extend the cup holder to the use position. Such movement may be aided in only one direction in certain instances by a spring. That is, a spring can only help extend the cup holder to the extended position. No assembly is currently known which drives the tray fully in both directions between both of the extended use position and retracted stowed position. One further deficiency with these types of cup holders is that it sometimes becomes difficult for the operator of a vehicle to extend the cup holder to the use position while driving the vehicle.